John Matthews
Rotary District 5030 Governor

District 5030 Governor John Matthews is a long-time member of the Rotary Club of Mercer Island. He has taken on the voluntary role of top administrator for some 3,300 Rotarians in King and South Snohomish counties — including the fourth largest Rotary Club in the world, Seattle 4.

“District has one role and one role only, to help build strong clubs,” said Matthews, who will visit all 54 clubs this Rotary year. “All the real Rotary work is done at the club level.”

As the world’s largest service club with 33,000 clubs and 1.2 million members, Rotary touches lives around the world. Locally in every city in King County and South Snohomish County, which make up District 5030, Rotary Clubs perform hundreds of service projects every year. The district itself also hosts a number of projects which include Rotary First Harvest , Computers for the World , Music for Life, Rotacare, and Partners for Work.

During this Rotary year, District Governor Matthews and his team, made up of Rotarians from the various clubs that make up the district, will distribute some $325,000 dollars in grants made to the individual clubs to assist with projects both local and international in flavor. Some of these funds will also go to support three Ambassadorial Scholars and a Group Study Exchange team to India.

“Rotary is about ordinary people doing extraordinary things,” concluded Matthews, who feels it is a privilege to serve and is looking forward to a busy and productive year.

A retired Naval officer and now Senior Vice President, Human Resources and Risk Management for Costco, Matthews and his wife Mary Ellen have two children, a son and a daughter.

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The Search Is On!
For the 2011 Auction's Primary Beneficiary
Joel Cambern, 2011 Auction Committee

As we look forward towards our annual Bellevue Rotary Auction for 2011, we face the opportunity and the privilege of identifying our Primary Beneficiary for this important event. This is a challenging task, due to the fact that there is a vast number of worthy organizations within our community that would benefit greatly from the generosity of our members, donors, guests, and sponsoring partners.

We are currently seeking applications from local nonprofits and charities that we may be able to partner with, and we need your help. Our club members are very active throughout the community and interact regularly with organizations which meet the criteria that we are looking for. We are reaching out to our members for leads, recommendations, and introductions to these groups.

Ideally, the applicants will:

• be local
• have a specific capital need which can be addressed through our "Fund a Need" Campaign
• have the capacity to partner with us in audience development and donor procurement

The application deadline is July 30th. We intend to have our 2011 primary beneficiary identified by early next month, so we are very anxious to get those applications in and to start the interview process.

If you have an organization in mind, please contact Alan Fulp, Joel Cambern, or any member of the Auction Committee ASAP for details on how to have an application submitted.

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